English Phonetics and Phonology - Week 3: Consonant Theory Continued

Introduction: Hello everyone and welcome to the Week 3 of the course English Phonetics and Pholology for the Bachelor's in English Teaching at ULACIT term IIIC 2023. This week we begin our study of the English consonant system. We will learn what consonants are, how they can be classified, and also learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symobls that are used to represent them. 

Today's Goals: 

• Review the parts of the speech apparatus and their functions.
• Isolate individual consonant phonemes and classify them according to three dimensions.
• Produce a phonetic transcription of simple sentences.

Guiding Questions: 

• In what places and manners can consonants be articulated?
• What is consonant voicing and how can I detect it?
• How do I write a phonetic transcription?

Task 1: English Spelling is Dum

One aspect that makes English a challenging language to learn is the difference between the spelling system and pronunciation system. Words are often full of silent letters and the pronunciation of letters can change drastically from word to word. Watch this video and discuss the questions below.

• What are your initial reactions to the video?
• What issues have you had learning English spelling and pronunciation?
• Can you think some words that you know how to pronounce but you always have trouble spelling?
• Can you think of any words in your native language that are not pronounced the way they are spelled?
• Read the sentence below and find the following:

• Examples of silent letters
• Examples of letters (vowels and consonants) that are pronounced differently in different words in the sentence or even within the same word.
• Examples of double vowel letters that are pronounced as a single vowel sound.

• "One aspect that makes English a challenging language to learn is the difference between the spelling system and pronunciation system."

Task 2: Concept Review

In your homework from last week you had to isolate a consonant phoneme in a word and classify it according to voicing, place and manner of articulation and also match it with it's IPA symbol. 

• Which category is easier for you to classify: place, manner, voicing? Why? 
• Which do you find most challenging? Why?
• How are the following manners of articulation produced? Can you give an example phoneme for each one?

• Plosive
• Fricative
• Affricate
• Nasal
• Approximant

• Of the consonant symbles in IPA, which ones are not part of the Latin alphabet? 
• Which phonemes are represented with two symbols?
• CLICK HERE to see the new symbols. Can you match each one with an example?
• CLICK HERE to check your answers.

Click to view full size.

• Look at the diagram of the vocal tract. Which parts can you remember?

Task 3: Classifying Consonants and Beginner Transcription

Click on your group worksheet below and follow the instructions in the shared document.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

References: 

Carley, P., Mees, I., & Collins, B. (2018). English Phonetics adn Pronunciation Practice. Routledge.